Camping

We finally did it! We have been trying to go camping together as a family for awhile now. Last time we tried, Caleb started running a fever the day we were to leave and who wants to sleep in a tent with a sick baby?! Not me!!

A few weekends ago we went to South Llano Rive State Park near Junction to camp for the weekend. So much fun!!! What made our camping trip so fun?

1. Family - An entire weekend with no distractions! We spent the weekend together laughing and talking and just simply enjoying one another.

2. The TENT - Let's be honest... we didn't quite rough it! Our tent is HUGE! In Gabe's words, "Our tent came with an application for its own zip code!!" So true. It is 10x20 and worth every bit. We had enough room for two blow up mattresses, Caleb's pea pod, bags, and still had plenty of room to walk around.

3. Hikes and Geo Caching - We are that family...the one that is totally nerdy and proud of it! We went geo caching and found it to be tons of fun. Basically you follow coordinates to find a hidden box or cache. In it there is a sign-in book to say "I've been here" and also lots of trinkets. You can take one if you leave one. The fun is the hunting and finding though. Isaac thought this was so fun. Julia liked it but got tired of walking. She does have the stamina of a 5 year old. Caleb got a sweet ride, so not many complaints from him. We found two caches and there is one more to find the next time we go back.

 

4. Canoeing the River - The river actually had enough water in it (barely) to put the canoe in. The river was super low in a lot of spots, so we dragged bottom a lot and poor Gabe had to get us unstuck often. The 1 1/2 hour canoe trip turned into about 3 hours due to this. It was a lot of work paddling a family of five and our dog down this river with basically no current, but we did it and had fun (most of the time)!

5. Campfires and s'mores - The burn ban was lifted the day we got there so we got to build a few fires to sit around and we got to do the traditional s'mores. Always fun! Isaac was a little pyro with the fire. He spent the whole time adding little sticks and leaves and basically finding anything that would burn.

this is his pouty face

6. Meeting new friends - The campsite was very full this weekend. There was a group there who were the sweetest people. Imagine the Duggars multiplied. Their group was having a Daddy-Daughter camping weekend with a few Moms along to help with everything. They helped us transport our canoe, invited us to their worship time, and basically befriended us. One girl came to our campsite several times just to visit with us and as she left encouraged us to continue living for the Lord. Great people! On Saturday another large group arrived, this one being a boy scout troupe and not your ordinary troupe. They were all of Indian decent (not Native American... India) They came in speaking Hindi which the kids thought was Spanish. Ha! We befriended the family that camped closest to us. This was their first time to camp and they were in awe of our rather large tent. After sleeping in their cramped tent, they now want the super tent like ours. They were funny and I enjoyed visiting with them.

7. I don't really have a number 7 but I thought it was a better number to stop on than 6. If I had to put one more reason why this weekend was so great it would be that we made wonderful memories together as a family. Yep, that's it! That's my number 7. Wonderful, lasting memories!

car camping at its best - the van was packed to the brim

he stuffed his mouth with marshmallows

easily entertained with some rocks